Abandoned cart, 4:00 AM, Pearl
More abandoned carts have appeared in the Pearl lately, left behind in front of posh galleries and boutiques, or parked next to city meters in front of the Rite Aid. To me, they seem significant far beyond the surface connections - harried shoppers who fail to return carts to the store, or homeless people forced to abandon them in the pouring rain. I look at them, and I wonder what it means to leave behind the thing that carried your burdens for you - to simply stop pushing it and walk away.
And maybe because of the time of year - with everyone I know frazzled and broke from holiday shopping - I cannot help but think of the emptiness of that particular burden. We could simply stop pushing it around. Leave it behind.
But that is not quite it, either. With the value of the dollar falling, and with families facing foreclosure, I cannot help but shudder at the image of the empty, abandoned cart. While it is wonderful to imagine leaving a burden behind, it is equally terrifying to think of all that emptiness -- all those carts left unfilled, no apparent purpose left for them. I do not mean this in the sense of feeling sad about lost opportunities to charge junk on credit. I mean something else entirely - the loss of that sense of abundance and hope, prosperity.
But then I see a cart like this, glimmering like a jewel in the morning rain, parked in front of a neighborhood gallery:
And how can I not see this as beautiful?
photos taken with Lomo, long exposure, no flash